30 Years.....

U.S. Embassy April 30, 1975

It was 30 years ago today that our efforts in Vietnam came to a close with the fall of Saigon. It seems strange that something that occupied so much of my time then is now distant more than half the time that I have been a mortal on this earth. The ten years of major troop involvement is, of course, only a part of the total story of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that began immediately after WWII.

But a picture is worth more than a thousand words, my words at least, so here are some remembrances of Vietnam by two photographers whom I have had the privelage to know, Steve Stibbens and Catherine LeRoy. Steve was a combat photographer for five years in Vietnam from 1962 till 1967. He was the first correspondent for "Stars and Stripes" to arrive in Vietnam, later with the Marines "Leatherneck" magazine and then with the Associated Press where he was one of the best in the business, winning the Newspaper Photographer of the Year twice. Steve was my guest in Midland some years ago to speak at a seminar on Vietnam journalism.

I met Catherine LeRoy in 2001 at a reunion of the veterans of the Ia Drang. Catherine was one of the premier photo journalists in Vietnam and one of only a handful of female journalists active "in the field"...out with the troops. Catherine was captured by the North Vietnamese Army during the Tet Offensive in Hue, but managed to talk her way to freedom. Her photo gallery here is a compendium of works by photographers she knew.

Take a look at their poignant photos.....
Steve Stibbens: My War
Catherine LeRoy: Images Under Fire

I would be remiss if I didn't mention our website with Joe Galloway's excellent images from the Ia Drang Valley, 1965. The Ia Drang Campaign